New Calls for Intervention

The International Crisis Group has finally decided to get seriousor at least more serious than they were beforeabout Darfur and release a new set of recommendations for stopping genocide and alleviating the humanitarian crisis there. The ICG now estimates that a minimum of 12,000-15,000 personnel are needed immediately, within the next 60 days, far more than they've yet recommended, along with a strengthened protection mandate. (This in contrast to the 2,000 or so now on the ground and the 7,500 hopefully scheduled for sometime after the rainy season, when all hell will break loose.) And if the African Union can't do it, ICG says, then NATO ought to. But meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz says it's much too complex to figure out how to intervene, which, as Eugene Oregon notes, is exactly what they said about Rwanda ten years ago. Ah, lovely, lovely genocide.